It's the attitude of "what happens to celebrities is somehow more important than what happens to Joe Schmoe" I don't get. Like the other day (April 5th to be exact), I was in a bar and some guy starts yammering to me about "Do you know what today is?", with the clear implication that April 5th is somehow a significant date. So, I thought maybe he had his dates mixed up a little so I answered that the only thing I could think of with any significance was Martin Luther King getting shot, but that was on April 4th. Turns out he was on about Kurt Cobain offing himself, and how he was "the last iconic rockstar" and yaddayaddayadda. He wasn't too impressed with my "so what". ;-)

If a musician/movie star/... dies, and I happen to like their work, maybe I'll feel a pang of regret that there won't be any more work forthcoming, but that's about it. Point being: if I don't know someone in person, I don't attach any special emotional value to what happens to them, which is not to say that I can't empathize with strangers at all, just that I don't empathize more with celebrities then I otherwise would with an anonymous stranger.